


Constancy

by snowbryneich



Series: Deception [9]
Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 15:10:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8166314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowbryneich/pseuds/snowbryneich
Summary: James and Elizabeth come to an understanding.





	

James had seriously considered cornering that blasted maid and handing her the letter he has written with instructions to deliver it to Elizabeth. It was not as if she would let any harm come to Elizabeth’s reputation and she did seem to favour his suit even if she knew far more than he was comfortable with.

But that was cowardly and though he had written the letter pleading with Elizabeth to see sense and pouring his heart out and detailing that he had loved her since she was nineteen and would love her when she was ninety whether she married him or not - if he should live that long It was not as if he had not tried to stop loving her - she had been married to another man for four years for god’s sake and that had not undone one iota of his feeling for her. But even though he had written the letter he had intended it to be a last resort - if he could not get to see her.

He did not think Elizabeth would be convinced by a letter but just in case he had written numerous drafts - he wanted nothing hurtful to her in the letter and he did not mean to scold. Her own letter had not been so kind - she had avowed her love for him half a dozen times and he would have treasured it always if she had not also accompanied it with the casual assurance that all he wanted from her was a convenient mistress which she regretted she could not offer him.

 

It galled even more that she would say such things while denying him the opportunity to make a proper offer - or indeed to say anything to her at all. Still he had carried the letter with him since he had first read it and it was looking rather worse for wear now.

Of course - Elizabeth’s father being away did not easily give him access to Elizabeth who would no doubt still refuse to see him. He had taken a leaf out of her own book then and decided to scale his way to her bedroom (he knew this was how she had entered his room to leave her letter of farewell because she had not taken a great deal of care and had near stripped off the climbing ivy and roses from his home.) James would have to take more care at the Government House where any damage would be much more obvious. But he would not be undone by a slip of a girl in any case.

 

No doubt if it went badly it would be something else she could threaten to tell her father of - that he had climbed in her bedroom to molest her. The threat she had made still made him sick to his stomach - he had knew he hadn’t forced her. She had asked him to that bedroom. And besides since then she had asked him to play pirate half a dozen times or so in her marriage bed before his crisis of consciousness where he had decided she deserved better than being his mistress. He knew she had only said it to make a point. But the horror that had spread through him before he had worked through her motive had lingered.

Elizabeth’s room was easy to climb to for a man who had spent his teenage years being forced to climb the rigging by officers who would not see ensigns sit idle for any reason. He didn’t damage her father’s flowers either but he did pick a single bloom to present to her just to because it seemed to fit the situation. But he abandoned the flower when he reached her window and saw her his heart constricted. She was abed but not asleep and her shoulders shook as she wept. The thought of her crying herself to sleep cut through him like a knife and he clattered through her window like an eager boy.

 

Elizabeth started when there was a crash at her window and nearly fell out of bed with a shriek. James immediately felt terrible - of course it would be different for her to have someone sneak in her window. “Elizabeth it is only me - there is no need to be frightened.” It was exactly the wrong thing to say of course and Elizabeth scuttled back on her bed offence clear on her face in the lamplight

 “I was not frightened,” she said haughtily. “And if you think you can trap me into marriage by being caught in my bedroom you should know my father isn’t here and none of the servants will care and I’m ruined anyway so I shan’t.”

James’ temper finally flared at that. “I am well aware your father is not at home," he said. “And if I had the slightest interest in trapping you in marriage I could have done that five years ago and spared you Turner’s attention.”

She quieted at that and for a moment he thought she would cry again which he could not have borne. “Well then,” she said quietly. “Damn your scruples.”

 

He offered her his handkerchief and she wiped at her eyes and then took his hand and surprised him by leading him to her bed. She had only the thinnest night rail on and when she unlaced it James did not have the self control to refuse her. He bore her down to her bed and took his time touching her, exploring her and coaxing her to her pleasure before he took her. But after they were done she only cried again and James was at a loss until she curled into his arms and whispered into his neck. “I am glad you came to say goodbye.” Her words were like a shock of cold water and he sat up pulling her with him.

“I did not come to say goodbye,” he said and then he managed to manage his tone and he pulled her close again. “I came to propose.”

“Oh,” she said in a small voice. “I cannot marry you James.” She sounded wounded that he had made her say it. And he wondered over that phrasing - not would not. Not she didn’t want to. Cannot. But then she carried on. “My father is sending me to England.” James nearly declared over his dead body was her father doing any such thing but he managed some sense of control.

 

“Of course you can marry me,” he said. “You cannot want to go to England,” he said - he had some good memories of England but Elizabeth had left as a child and he knew she largely regarded it as a county of rain and smog where her mother had died. and she shook her head sadly.

“Of course not,” she said. “But I can hardly refuse him given how much I have already disgraced him and at least in England if I stay in the country no-one will proposition me.”

“If anyone propositions you here I will run them through myself.” James told her fiercely. “Elizabeth - I love you. I want you to be my wife.” He pauses. “Will you at least tell me why you cannot marry me?”

“I cannot marry anyone,” she said. “I cannot bear to be tired of again.” She smiled sadly at him. “You were bored of me after a month James - you do not have to offer for me out of guilt. None of the other men I had will.”

 

“For fuck’s sake Elizabeth,” James said pushed to such language by the ridiculousness of what she was saying. “Bored of you. Tired of you. I assure you I felt no such thing.” He pulled away from her because he wanted to shake some sense into her but he would rather cut off his own arm than touch her in anger. “I felt badly over how I had treated you,” he said. “That I had taken advantage of your unhappiness and treated you so improperly. I was never that I didn’t want you. I was never that I didn’t love you.”

“Oh,” she said in a small voice and that made him feel a burst of guilt that he had sworn at her. 

“Elizabeth - if I could have stopped loving you - I would have done when you married another man. But I couldn’t. You have my whole heart and have done since you were nineteen and you got drunk at the fort and snuck onto the Dauntless and would not disembark unless I kissed you.”

Elizabeth blushed - she had been half in love with James Norrington when she was younger - if he had proposed then she would have happily thrown herself at him. And she had been so irritated to turn nineteen and still not be kissed. But after she had had her insisted on kiss - he had barely touched his lips to hers but she had been pleased none the less until she had sobered up when she had been seized by embarrassment every time she saw him after that. “I can’t believe I won you like that,” she said. “I was so badly behaved.”

“You were adorable,” he said. “Are adorable. And beautiful and clever and perfect. And I will never ever be happy unless you are my wife.”

“Alright then,” she said. “But I hope you aren’t in any hurry. My father will want to hold the biggest fanciest ceremony Jamaica has ever seen.”

 

James felt first faint with elation at that agreement then a little like he was dying inside at the idea of waiting. Then he thinks of everyone snubbing Elizabeth thanks to her former husband’s behaviour. He could wait. He could let everyone see she was not ruined.

 He tidied her night rail a little and then dropped to one knee before her only to have her immediately tug him back up.

“Oh no you don’t,” she told him. “You are not proposing to me in my night rail in the middle of the night. You can do things properly and ask for an audience when my father is back.”

James was astonished by this sudden need for propriety and it must have shown because Elizabeth blushed prettily. “It will make my father’s year.” she said. “And we will need a fancy story to share when you shock all of society by offering for me.”

 

And she deserved a proper proposal James thought - not one where he called her an achievement and nearly let her drown. “Alright,” he said. “I will call as soon as your father is home.” He kissed briefly and told himself to leave while he still had some self control.

But Elizabeth only startled him again by pulling him down the bed. “I never said you had to _go_.” Her tone is exasperated but she was easy enough to please once he pulled off her night rail and used his mouth to tease her.

He brought her to the edge again and again and innocently suggested. "Perhaps you would like to wait until the wedding night," he said. "Make things truly proper?"

"Only if you wish the wedding night to be the only time you get to have me this year," she threatened her tone pleading. "I need you James."

That once sentence works more than any begging she has previously managed and he slides himself into her groaning her name.

It was only afterwards when she is drowsing in his arms that he realises. Elizabeth has said she would marry him and then _bedded_ him. By the standards she used to escape Will Turner - she was already his wife.

 


End file.
